Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

Since the general rule is that you can use any name you wish as long as it is not an attempt to defraud or intentionally mislead someone, since I would think the reason to change your name is to mislead people and defeat the purpose of the registeration law you would not legally be allowed to change your name.

? Probably, but they would still have to register under whatever name they use once it is changed.

Put the two prior answers together and you have your answer. Because you cannot do it to defraud or mislead, a condition of the grant of the name change would pretty much certainly be that you re-register in the new name.